Lily Tarwater, Environmental Studies and English Majors
Lily is an Environmental Studies and English major from Pittsburgh, PA. Her interests include sustainable development, environmental justice, and community organizing.
On campus, Lily is involved with Tree Club and Divest Dickinson, which have given her an understanding of and appreciation for community organizing and grassroots activism. She also lived in the Treehouse (Center for Sustainable Living) her sophomore and junior year, which expanded her knowledge of sustainable living habits and communal living. Her junior year, she worked as a Dana research assistant with Professor Bedi, researching the social inequities associated with renewable energy transitions in India. This expanded Lily’s passion for environmental justice, just transitions, and cross-cultural research. Other campus involvement includes working as a Peer Tutor and Writing Associate at the writing center and DJing at WDCV. Lily has also explored sustainability issues through various internships. In summer 2020, Lily educated children at renewable energy summer camps with the Center for Energy Education and organized college students to vote for intersectional feminist issues at Feminist Majority Foundation.
Lily planned to study abroad in Ecuador and Argentina in Spring 2020; while her time abroad was cut short, she hopes to live and work in Spain post-graduation. In the future, Lily hopes to bridge her eclectic interests studying sustainable urban planning and just energy transitions. In all of her work, Lily strives to consider holistically the complex causes of and solutions to environmental harm, and interrelated social inequities. As a Baird Fellow, Lily is excited to learn from her peers’ sustainability interests and foster innovative change at Dickinson.